"This is The-Digital-Picture.com's Weekend Recap for the week ending August 3rd, 2013

In the news...

On Monday, Canon released firmware updates for three 1-series bodies - the 1D III, 1Ds III, and the 1D Mark IV. While the firmware updates fixed relatively minor issues, their release sheds light on Canon’s long-term commitment to supporting pro-grade bodies well after they’ve been discontinued.

On Thursday, Sigma announced a lens mount conversion service. The new service allows current owners of Sigma’s global vision lenses to return their lenses to Sigma’s service department to have the mounts changed to any other supported camera mount. The service will cost anywhere from $80.00 to $250.00, depending on the lens.

Move over Dropbox - there's new kid on the block. Copy gives you 15 gigabytes of free storage with a great referral program that allows you to rack up substantially more storage with no capacity limits.

Copy seems ideal for users who need to share a substantial amount of data within a group. Since the shared data isn't counted against every individual, the group as a whole benefits from more useable storage.

P.S. - Don't forget to install the desktop application. You can find it by clicking "Install App" on the upper-left part of the screen.

Features:

Copy Referral Program - In possibly the most rewarding referral program in cloud storage history, Copy users can earn 5GB of additional free storage for both themselves and the person they introduce to Copy for each referral, with no limit on the total capacity they can earn. The average Copy referrer has earned well over 60GB of free storage, with the largest referrers earning space in the 10s of TBs.

Copy “Fair Storage for All” Initiative - Instead of counting data in shared folders against all members’ individual storage quotas so everyone pays for the same data over and over, Copy allows users to “split the bill” and control which files count against their storage capacity. View the 40-second video on the Copy “Fair Storage for All” initiative at . Copy was created to meet the exceedingly high design demands of today’s online and mobile users, and to provide the advanced security and corporate features required for businesses. Additional highlights of the service include:

Easy file sharing without limits - Copy allows users to upload and share files of any size, including 1080p videos and raw photographs, without size limitations often found in email attachments. These shared files and folders can be sent to anyone either publicly or privately and accessed from any location or device.

More security - Copy provides a secure alternative to other cloud storage services. Included data verification inspects data before Copy accepts it into the user’s cloud storage. File-level ownership is verified prior to transferring anything to other devices. Copy also allows users to share files privately using Copy’s built-in identify verification.

Company control - Copy extends its cloud storage and sharing benefits into corporate environments with user and group management and added controls for proprietary company data.

Pricing and Availability

Copy is available at Copy.com and by installing the free software. Copy also is available as a free app in the Apple App Store for iOS devices and on Google Play for Android devices.

Individual Copy accounts provide 15GB of cloud storage free of charge, and paid plans start at $9.99USD/month or $99USD/year for up to 250GBs.

Copy for Companies introduces an industry-changing no-per-user-fee approach and plans starting at $399.99USD/year for 100GB.

Caveat Emptor: BigValueInc's positive feedback rating is at 98.2%. We recently received information that some buyers received the wrong product when purchasing from this merchant. Be sure to keep all supporting documents if taking advantage of this offer.

We just released the fourth in our “About A Photograph” video series. In it, photojournalist Ami Vitale narrates the events behind her touching photograph of Ethiopian women participating in an elaborate coffee ceremony.

Said Vitale, “I don’t come taking millions of pictures. I spend time with them and simply observe. If you wait long enough those amazing images will come.”

Based in Montana, Vitale is a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine and frequently gives workshops throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Her journey as a photojournalist has taken her to more than 80 countries. Her photographs have been exhibited around the world in museums and galleries and published in international magazines including National Geographic, Adventure, Geo, Newsweek, Time, and Smithsonian. Her work has garnered multiple awards from prestigious organizations including World Press Photos, the Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism, Lucie awards, the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, and the Magazine Photographer of the Year award, among many others.

Note: Use the links from this site to get a free gift with your purchase of $50.00 or more at Think Tank Photo!

Sigma Corporation(CEO: Kazuto Yamaki, Location: Kawasaki, Japan) has established, Sigma China in Shanghai, China. Sigma China is formed as a solely owned subsidiary of Sigma Corporation and operations started on August 1st, 2013.

Purpose:

We established a subsidiary in Shanghai to fulfill sales, brand management and customer support in the growing Chinese market.

We intend to construct an efficient sales and logistics network and we believe that this will enable us to provide a complete line-up of our products, build brand image as well as offer a good after-sales service.

Zoom has released a sample video demonstrating what its newly released H6 Portable Digital Recorder can do. The video features Jazz drummer Peter Erskine and was shot using only the included X/Y capsule and four microphones plugged directly into the unit.

Granted, this is a bit of a stretch for a "photography gear" website, but I thought we might have some readers who are interested in purchasing Google's newly announced Chromecast.

On that note, Best Buy has the Chromecast in stock with free shipping and 3 months of free Netflix streaming (according to the product page). I preordered mine on Amazon a week ago, but there's still no estimated shipping date for the order (out of stock). [Sean]

Update: It looks like the Chromecast is on backorder now - 1 to 2 weeks.